The Freed, et al
by billy morph
Summary: A few short stories baised off my story 'The Freed'
1. Report on escaped experiments

Report on Experiments: HJ9314, GA93329, TP9595, CF9671, WV9845

The remnants of test group 0431, this group of Human Avian hybrids are currently at large and considered dangerous. Caution is advised when approaching this group as it contains several powerful individuals and has already defeated several retrieval squads. Capture is preferable to termination.

HJ9314 

AKA: Hawk

Age: 13

Gender: Male

Height: 5,4

Weight: 90lbs (as of last measurement)

Eye Colour: Black, suspected deep brown

Hair Colour: Brown, Blond

Intelligence: Above average

Species: Human Avian hybrid, subcategory: falcon

Current Location: Unknown, (last know location New York)

Psychometric Analysis: HJ9314 gained the nickname Hawk at an early age in reference to his penetrating stare and unerring ability to see moving objects. His personality is flighty at best and seems to spend the larger proportion of his time away from the other escaped experiments (now terminated). He however has a strong bond with the other avian experiments in his test group and further analysis of this is required. His particular recombination has made him temperamental but his reactions are far faster than any other hybrid produced by this facility though he seems to think with his feet rather that his head. This means he often leads during combat situations though his personality prevents him from leading during other times.

Warning: This recombant has been placed in retrieval category 2, severe abnormalities in the brain have been detected and it is warned that he should have no access to electronics.

GA93329

AKA: Gale

Age: 13

Gender: Female

Height: 5,5

Weight 95lbs (as of last measurements)

Eye Colour: Brown

Hair Colour: Brown

Intelligence: High, natural leader

Species: Human Avian hybrid, (large wings)

Current Location: Unknown, (last know location New York)

Psychometric Analysis: GA93329 or Gale as she is known, gained her title through her overlarge wings which 'kick up a gale' when she flaps them. Gale is suspected to be responsible for the escape of the recombants from the trap in the subway and was wholly accepted leader for a week after their escape. Her natural leadership abilities however were perturbed by contact with another experiment TI95657 (see file) and now after losing control and the majority of the experiments she seems much less keen to lead the remaining experiments letting 'Hawk' deal with stressful situations.

Warning: This recombant has been placed in retrieval category 3, however caution is advised, she is never to be found without some other experiments around her though her physic powers seem dormant.

TP9595

AKA: Tara/Tapper

Age: 11

Gender: Female

Height: 5,1

Weight: 83lbs (as of last measurement)

Eye Colour: Yellow

Hair Colour: Light Blond

Intelligence: High

Species: Human Avian hybrid, subcategory: owl

Current Location: Unknown, (last know location New York)

Psychometric Analysis: TP9595 known to the other experiments as Tapper is quite shy and this is suspected to be part of her genetic makeup. She also shows a preference for being nocturnal and can see equally well in dark conditions and has even succeeded navigating a pitch black maze. Her quiet disposition, and general movement, make her very stealthy and further models have been authorised for production for spies. Tapper is also suspected of creating the Tapped language that has spread around many facilities though this is unconfirmed but given her heightened senses, fully possible.

Warning: This recombant has been placed in retrieval class 3, however be warned her heightened senses could make her a dangerous enemy though her personality suggests she is reasonably gentle.

CF9771

AKA: Chameleon/Cam

Age: 9

Gender: Male

Height: 4,9

Weight: 77lbs (as of last measurement)

Eye Colour: Green

Hair Colour: Green (see specifics)

Intelligence: Above average

Species: Human Avian hybrid, subcategory: Chameleon

Current Location: Unknown, (last know location New York)

Psychometric Analysis: CF9771 is one of four surviving members of his test group of twenty, his DNA is more unstable than others due to the abnormal splicing but at the last exam he seemed in full health. Personality wise he is hyperactive, and had a tendency for biting off more than he can chew. However some suspect seeing most of the others in his test group die may have hurt him more deeply than he lets on, this is unconfirmed however. Cam also shows some sign of being able to manipulate his skin pigment and this may lead to full camouflage; so far this is just theoretical.

Warning: This recombant has been placed in retrieval class 2. While not overly dangerous the possibility of his abilities kicking in may cause serious problems. Additionally like all Avian recombants, he is of above average strength.

WV9845

AKA: Weirdness

Age: 8

Gender: Female

Height: 4,7

Weight: 72lbs (as of last measurement)

Eye Colour: Glowing Green (further testing required)

Hair Colour: Black

Intelligence: Abnormal (tests unable to measure properly)

Species: Human Avian hybrid, (physic brain segment enlarged)

Current Location: Unknown, (last know location New York)

Psychometric Analysis: WV9845 a personality similar to any other child of her age, though shows a far greater understanding of others than expected. Her eyes always glow with an eerie green phosphorescence and this is where she gained her name, it is suspected this is an external symptom of her power, though why it is constant is a mystery. It is confirmed however that the glow strengthens when she used her telekinetic powers. Additionally her spatial awareness is off the charts and it is suspected she is using her power to sense the surrounding area.

Warning: This recombant has been placed in retrieval class 1, seriously harming this experiment is strictly forbidden. All units are ordered not to approach this recombant without significant backup as she already has three confirmed kills. Her powers have no registered limit and are growing exponentially; sedation is the only known way to stop her.


	2. Overlord Weird

_Authors note: This is a one shot biased off one of my comments that Hawk and Weird could take over the world if they wanted to. Please bear in mind that this happens several years after the Freed and is more or less AU. _

Weirdness

I vaulted over the low wall and landed hard on my tailbone in an inch of ice cold water, ducking down as torch beams swung over my head. That had been too close. What had ever possessed me to try and break into a Government facility? I flipped open my palm top and quietly slipped through the system back door I'd left during my visit, it would be gone by the morning, but until then I could access the satellite grid which I think is something haven't done for about four years. They got locked down pretty tightly since…

Well, since everything went, Weird.

A satellite uplink told me that our truck was safely speeding away through the night. I should have been on that truck, but the guards had been more than a little annoyed by our rescue attempt and heroism is a hard habit to break. Especially since not one of the prisoners we'd freed was counting their age in double figures.

The Lab had been more humane. And trust me on this; one upping them is nothing to be proud of. At least the kids were safe now.

"Hi Hawk," Weird said, appearing like a ghost next to me and I nearly jumped out of my skin, yelling in surprise, tearing my pistol out of its holster and pointing it right in her face.

"Cute," she said as I pulled the trigger and the gun completely failed to go off. "Futile. But cute."

It's somehow disturbing to hear a thirteen year old call you cute. It's even more disturbing to have a thirteen year old call you cute when you know full well that she was responsible for destroying most of Washington. The gun turned to dust in my hands and I desperately began running simulations to either kill her, or get the hell out of there.

My power cut out suddenly and I saw Weird's eyes flash. She'd long ago stopped needing to do that so that was probably just to show off.

"Stony as ever Hawk?" she asked with a sigh.

"Why not just read my mind?" I shot back bitterly, noticing that Weird wasn't actually getting wet, even though she was squatting in the water next to me.

"You know I can't do that," she replied sighing.

"Can any of your little experiments yet?"

"A few," she admitted. "There not very good. Too bad someone erased Angel's code."

"Too bad someone erased Angel," I snapped, whipping a dagger out of my sleeve and had it vanish clear from my hand. Weird didn't miss a step.

"It was necessary," she said with another shrug. "If you guys just saw things logically it wouldn't have been a problem."

"Don't talk to me about logic," I snarled. "I think with computers."

"And where has your supposedly immutable logic got you?" Weird asked with pity in her voice. "Your rebellion's over. The only one left is you, and that insane tiger, and neither of you have done anything worth applauding in months. Heck this one was so sloppy that I knew it was you from just the camera work. Are my security patches getting to you?"

"It worked didn't it?" I shot back, reaching for the other knife in my boot that turned out simply not to be there.

"Road block two miles up," she explained off-handedly and I resisted the urge to swear. "And you really shouldn't move people so soon after they are recoded."

"Like you care," I snapped angrily. "You're the one who kidnapped them for your sick experiments."

"Requisitioned," she corrected.

"Kidnapped!" I roared. "Don't dance around with words like you always do. It's not an 'enlightened leadership' it's a 'dictatorship', your not 'helping humanity' you're messing around with their genes for your own agenda and the others did not die because of the Lab. You killed them!"

"Lab created me. I killed them. Lab's fault," she countered with another shrug "Besides I've already told you I didn't mean it."

I resisted the urge to pick her up and shake her - it would probably end with my arms being blasted off. "They're dead," I said in a monotone. "You could at least apologise."

"I have," she said levelly. "You won't get over it. My offer still stands you know. You are incredibly gifted; you could easily be my second in command."

"The hell I could," I snapped. "Why not just kill me now and get it over with?"

"I don't want to?" she admitted. "Partly, because I know you have got at least something planned if you do actually die, and people need technology, but mostly because I know you. You're misguided, but not a bad person."

"I used to think that about you," I said, sighing. "I was wrong."

"That's sweet," she said patting my shoulder and I suddenly dumped a lightning bolt into her, leaping to my feet and fighting the scream in my brain and the twitches that came from sitting in the same river as the person I just electrocuted.

I tore my wings open and was away before anyone even realised what was happening, dodging pot shots from the guards and not stopping until day break.

It wasn't for another day or so that I found a business card slipped into my jacket pocket. I tore it up without reading it.

I hate that girl.


	3. Overlord Hawk

_Author's Note: This is the flip side to the last story, also an AU but a little less this time._

Hawk

Bullets exploded over my head and I dived for the nearest piece of cover - a very shot up looking bar. I slammed into the tile floor and swore as a particularly vicious shard of glass drove itself into my arm.

"Weird?" a woman asked surprised, over the roar of gunfire. "You were supposed to be going out the back."

"Ambush," I hissed, telekinetically sucking the glass out of my arm and moving into a sitting position behind the bar. That was going to hurt in the morning, assuming of course I made it to the next morning.

"How many got out?"

"A half dozen maybe," I hazarded while trying to remember her name. Karen something, worked in a bank, bloody strong psychic though not that good with actually doing anything and the second in command of the local chapter.

"There were at least fifty," she said grimly, taking few pot shots over the top of the bar at the cops.

"That's ambushes for you," a kid, James I think, chimed in. There were just too many to remember them all, too many names, too many faces. As it was ultimately my fault for the mess they were in I really should do them the decency of learning their names but with something like sixty thousand psychics world wide its gotten to the point where I just can't keep track any more.

"We're going to have to make a break for it," the final man behind the bar cut in. He was in his mid forties and I definitely didn't remember his name though in my defence I don't think he'd said much.

"There's quite a few of them," James observed.

"Drop the ceiling on them then?" Karen asked me.

"I was thinking throw the bar," I said with a shrug.

"Deal."

I hopped into a squat as Karen crouched, pulling her arms back in a mock martial arts style, I just focused on gathering energy. Back in the old days this would have been child's play but things have changed since then and I'm no longer as apocalyptic as I once was. I'm still not sure whether or not to be glad about that.

A wall of psychic force slammed into the bar and there was the sound of tortured metal as bolts tore and the thing went flying, the four of us accelerating after it. The cops dove for cover as the ballistic bar slammed on top of two of them, completely blocking the door, and the rest of the cops started firing. I tore tiles out of the floor and sent them screaming towards the ceiling in a vain attempt to stop the bullets, and winced as the nameless man simply dropped to the floor. No time to do anything though.

Three cops fell writhing as a window exploded inwards catching them in a deadly rain of glass, and two shards screamed away from the swarm catching two other cops in the throats. James stumbled as he tried to concentrate on too much at once, and a bullet that must have passed within a millimetre of a tile drilled its way into his calf. He fell as Karen and I leapt in unison through the window and hit the ground running, dodging past some surprised looking cops and diving down a side street. A part of me was screaming over leaving another person behind but self preservation can be a powerful motivator.

Another shot whizzed over my shoulder and I felt Karen reaching out for the walls, and I joined her in dragging a layer of bricks out that went thundering into the alley effectively blocking any pursuit. We kept running.

"I think," Karen panted about twelve back alleys later. "We. Lost them."

I sank against the wall next to her. "This is a disaster," I said shaking my head.

"True. But we escaped didn't we?"

"You wouldn't have had to escape if it hadn't been for me," I admitted sombrely.

"Now that's just being harsh on yourself," she said putting her arm around me. "Just because you arrived today doesn't mean they were after you specifically."

"Err," I said hesitantly. "That's not technically true."

"They were after you!" she exclaimed, taking her arm off my shoulder and recoiling a little. "There must have been a hundred cops out there. Who the hell are you, the damn Awakener?"

I kept quiet. Just for reference being awakened is having any psychic potential you have unlocked by another psychic. The Awakener was the first psychic and, coincidentally, me.

"Good lord. No wonder you're feeling guilty."

"Sorry for screwing up your life," I said sheepishly.

"I hated my old life anyway," she admitted shrugging. "At least this one's exciting. Now let's get out of here."

She rose to go and there was a soft 'phut' and something whistled over my head, followed by a meaty 'thunk' as the something buried itself deep in her arm. I leapt to my feet and spotted a shadowy figure a hundred yards away who I knew with absolute certainty would have killed Karen if she hadn't picked that exact moment to stand up.

The shadow exploded in a ball of flame and yelled in surprise, I really didn't mean to do that.

"Now Weird," Hawk said from right behind me and I whirled, staring at him in shock. "Was that really necessary?"

"You're dead," I gasped after a stunned moment.

"Really?" he asked in mock surprise, looking at his hand. "I don't feel dead."

"I know you're dead because I killed you," I countered angrily. "I killed all of us."

"And yet we're both here. Care to explain your side?"

"I just," I said faltering, for the first time really thinking about the question. "Pulled myself back together after the explosion. You couldn't do that though. So that means you're not real."

"And here I thought it was quite convincing," he said with a dismissive shrug.

"You still look fourteen. You could have at least aged yourself the eight years."

"So much for artistic licence," he said rolling his eyes. "I spent a long time on becoming real again."

"You're not real," I insisted. "Hawk's dead. What are you, just some ghost in the machine?"

"I prefer to think myself more than a ghost," he said with a sarcastic smile. "I am running the world you know."

"That's you?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh come on Weird, you're not stupid. Though with this little epidemic you've created I've had to reconsider that recently."

"Shit," I swore, finally figuring it out. "It is you isn't it? You're the one killing them all."

"'Running the world' remember," he said even including the air quotes. "And I've had to clear up this catastrophe, the only way I can."

"You've killed thousands," I said stunned, backing away.

"Necessary," he said with another dismissive shrug. "Psychics are a danger to themselves and everyone around them. I think you proved that with your explosion."

I turned to run and spotted another Hawk standing twenty yards away with a large automatic weapon and a grin.

"And me?" I asked hesitantly turning to face the first Hawk who was now flanked by two more clones, or robots, or whatevers.

"Root cause of the problem, sorry."

I began to desperately draw in power and the Hawks' guns came up.

"One question though Hawk," I cut in, bracing myself and getting ready to launch Karen along with me. "Did you remember the wings?"

I unleashed the energy just as the guns roared and Karen and I were hurled into the sky, the acceleration pulling at my joints and suddenly were high above the city and beginning to fall. A flick of my wings sent me spiralling towards her and I began leaching energy out of the air to keep us airborne.

I had no clear idea where to go so just kept moving, got Karen to a hospital, left town in a hurry and finally holed up in a motel for the night.

It wasn't until then that I finally broke down, and cried.


End file.
